Gene Alsace

A rather nondescript B-Western supporting player, Gene Alsace (born Rockford G. Camron) was Tim McCoy's stunt double before being awarded the starring role in 1935's Gun Smoke (aka Gunsmoke on the Guadalupe) a very low-budget oater ostensibly produced by rodeo rider Monte Montana. Alsace, who used the moniker Buck Coburn for the occasion, was supported by such B-Western stalwarts as Marion Shilling, Bud Osborne, Henry Hall, and Ben Corbett, but the little film made almost no money and no further starring roles were forthcoming. Leaving the Buck Coburn tag behind him for good, Alsace instead played scores of minor supporting roles but is easy to pick out in a posse or among the villain's henchmen because of his penchant for wearing old-fashioned chaps and sticking his gun carelessly in his belt. Working mainly at small-scale operations such as Monogram and PRC, Alsace later changed his name once again, this time to Rocky Camron, the character he played in the 1943 trail blazers Western Outlaw Trail. Alsace/Camron was a good guy for a change and continued to use the Rocky Camron moniker when playing law-abiding citizens in such Westerns as Harmony Trail (1947) and Callaway Went Thataway (1951). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi